Spitalfields Life

Hugo Glendinning, The Speed Angels (the world’s first trans-sexual pop group) in Spitalfields. From Hugo Glendinning, photographer.

Having been alerted to Bob Mazzer's London Underground pictures (see here) I have discovered Spitalfields Life. This website includes an astonishing archive of photographs of London's East End ('Photo Life') from the nineteenth century until now. The collection amounts to a fascinating record of a now mostly lost London; it seems to be particularly strong on street life and potrtraits from the 1970s and 80s, but is delightfully idiosyncratic in its scope and organisation. Well worth exploring.
Below is just a selection of images that caught my eye, with links to the particular files in which I found them.

Markéta Luskacova, Woman in the Bird in the Cage pub, Bethnal Green Rd, 1976. From Marketa Luskacova’s Brick Lane.

Colin O’Brien, Jason John, Street Musician. From The Fly-Pitchers Of Spitalfields.

Colin O’Brien. From Colin O’Brien’s Kids on the Street.

Sarah Ainslie, Lara Clifton. From The Strippers ofShoreditch.

John Claridge, At the ’59 Club, 1973. From People On The Street & A Cat.

Colin O'Brien. From Travellers' Children in London Fields.

Ashley Jordan Gordon, Guy with Bike on Brick Lane. From Ashley Jordan Gordon, photographer.

Lucinda Douglas-Menzies, Gilbert and George. From Lucinda Douglas-Menzies, Spitalfields Portraits.

Martin Usborne, Joseph Markovitch. From Joseph Markovitch of Hoxton.

James Pearson Howes, From On the Kingsland Road.

Sarah Ainslie, Shamsa Hershi - Manager of Somali Elders Day Centre, From Somali Portraits.